101 Ways to ditch the Date | SIRIUS BLACK

No. 64

The pair of them stood still for a moment, Emmeline studying the girl quizzically, her vision partially obscured as the wind gently blew wisps of hair in front of her eyes. Marlene's expression was perfectly unreadable: she could be completely sincere yet this could just as easily be some elaborate ploy. Emmeline was reserved by nature, assuming the worst in people as a form of damage control ... or at least that's what she'd told herself. It was slowly becoming clearer that this was more likely a protection method to keep Ora to herself so perhaps it wouldn't kill her to let the girl open up.

Well, in this case, it might. Marlene was talented, scary and persuasive: a deadly triple.

"Confess your sins?" Emmeline repeated back to her as the Marlene took a few steps closer.

"That's what I said, right?"

Emmeline, in response, stumbled back a little, almost tripping over a rock before Marlene darted forwards, catching her arm.

"There," Marlene said, as Emmeline re-stabilised, "I saved your life, now you have to listen ..." A sudden vulnerability emerged, "Please?"

Annoyingly, this rung a vague bell of her time with Ora: a strong girl who only occasionally displayed emotion. As much as she hated it, there was no way she wasn't listening now. The two girls began to slowly venture up the hill.

"If you want to 'confess your sins' as you put it, you can," Emmeline murmured, "Wasn't sure if that was clear or not."

"It wasn't, so thank you," Marlene replied, taking a deep breath before saying, "I'm sorry."

This was followed by silence so Emmeline snarkily prompted, "For?"

"For taking advantage of you," Marlene replied frankly, "I could tell you liked her, you may as well have had a sign so I exploited that, I'm sorry. You were vulnerable, it's not hard being like us with all those 'traditional' muggle-borns around, spouting their agendas for whoever will listen. You were just easy access for a vengeful soul like me ... I sincerely hope you're not anymore."

"I'm not, but thanks for the concern," Emmeline snapped, pulling her cloak tighter around her shoulders before looking away to hide her the vague irritation written across her face. This was some apology - if it could even be called that. It felt more like a series of backhanded insults which made her all the more suspicious.

Marlene somehow picked up on this, sighing, "Here, take this."

At this, Emmeline turned to look back at her, "Take what?"

For some reason, Marlene was holding her own red-lace trimmed cape out to her, staring uncomfortably at her shoes, "You looked cold."

After a moment's hesitation, Emmeline took it off her, placing it over the top of her own, "I was a bit ... thank you."

With an uncomfortable cough, Marlene looked away again, "Your welcome. Sorry about my apology so far, it's pretty awful, right?"

This brought a vague smile to Emmeline's face, "Yeah, it is a bit."

"Okay, let me try it again," Marlene took another deep breath, "I'm sorry for exploiting and manipulating you when I should have been seeking revenge and helping you separately."

"Okay ... thank you, I guess?"

Inhaling deeply, putting the other two sighs to shame, Marlene continued, "And I'd also like to apologise to Ora - "

"I'm not Ora," Emmeline cut in quickly, "And frankly, I don't think I want to be a messenger either."

"You're not a messenger," Marlene assured her with a sigh, "More like ... practice. Apologising to her will significantly dent my pride and I don't know how much Sirius has told her so I run the risk of incriminating myself further ... either way, it will be hard. So, Emmeline Vance, can I please practice on you? I think you do need to hear it as well."